What is a World?
by xXHeart of GoldXx
Summary: Mae Stoppable dates Nathan Lipsky, who changes her for the better and is the first to accept her. Kim, meanwhile, realizes how important her daughter is until it's too late to make things right. "Sometimes," Shego said, "the most important things slip through your fingers before you realize they're important."


Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible.

This was a request from t-rex989. The request was this: Write a Kim Possible story where Kim and Ron's daughter dates Shego and Drakken's son.

* * *

Mae Stoppable stood at her locker, just watching her crush interacting with his many friends. She sighed and wished he'd just go up and talk to her instead of those bimbo girls he usually spoke with. But it was inevitable because he was probably the most popular guy in school while she was an outcast. She opened up her locker and sighed again, staring at her reflection. She grimaced when she saw herself. She had inherited her father's freckled and blonde hair, and even his brown eyes. Mae didn't even look like her mother, which irritated her greatly. Her mother, Kim Stoppable, was so beautiful with her auburn hair and green eyes, plus she didn't have those freckles on her face. Why couldn't her mother have married a better looking guy with at least some handsome traits? "Why are you looking at yourself like that?" Mae jumped at the sound of a male voice. Upon looking in the mirror, she noticed it was Nathan Lipsky, her crush since the moment she saw him when he entered their economics class.

"Wh-what?" Mae stuttered, and hated that she inherited her father's awkwardness. He chuckled at her, his bright green eyes shining.

"I mean, you're probably one of the prettiest girls in this school, but you look at yourself as if you're revolting to look at, which you aren't," he said to her gently. "I see a beautiful girl just hiding herself." Mae's jaw dropped at what he had just said to her. Here she was, her dreams coming true, but she had nothing to say! Well, she did, but she couldn't form the words. "I've liked you for a while now."

"Why?" she asked dumbly. She wanted to slap herself in the face for her lack of words, so to speak.

"You aren't fake. A lot of these people in this school are," he replied.

"I guess," she said.

"No, really. You don't try to be anything you aren't," he said to her.

"Which is why I don't have more than three friends," Mae said, but wanted to kick herself for saying something so stupid. She must have been blushing profusely by the heat radiating towards her face. But if she was as a red as a tomato, Nathan said nothing about it.

"And while you have three good friends," he started, "I have none."

"But those people you talk to," she said to him. "And all of them…you hang out with them all the time and they're always around you." Now she was barely making sense. She could have sworn awkwardness was genetic.

"They want to be my friends and I honestly don't know why. It's not like I have any classes with most of them." It was true. Nathan was in mostly honors classes as well as some college credit courses in the school. Furthermore, he seemed to be a genius, although, he never showed it off. "Anyway, I came over to ask you out on a date."

"Me? On a date? With you?" she asked incredulously. "Are you sure you're talking to the right person?"

"Your name is Mae Stoppable, isn't it?" he asked her, and she merely nodded. "So, you will go on a date with me?"

"Of course!" she exclaimed too eagerly and dropped her books. She blushed as he picked them up for her. "I mean, but why me?"

"Because I happen to like you," he said to her. "I'm not very good at asking girls out, so could you make this easy for me and just ask me what time I'll pick you up on Saturday night?"

* * *

Mae Stoppable loved going over Nathan's house, even if he wasn't there. She found herself falling in love with him as well as his family. She got along great with his mother, although she had heard horrible things about her from her own mother, Kim. She stood at the counter with Shego simply helping her bake an apple pie. In just six months, Mae had become a new person. She began to speak to people and her awkwardness was slowly vanishing as she began to feel more accepted. Since Nathan's acceptance, she was at ease with herself. Of course, she still held that awkwardness and all of it would never go away, but at least she was okay with it.

Kim hadn't noticed the difference in her daughter. Why would she? She was always out fighting crime for Global Justice and was always tired when she came home. Since Mae was little, she never spent time with her mother. And if she did, it was only for the first hour before school. After that, Mae went to daycare, was picked up by her mother, the dumped off at another one. Every night, she'd be picked up at three in the morning. She had learned to become a deep sleeper so she wouldn't get woken up every single night.

Her father was another story. She loved Ron dearly when he was around. But he only came home for a month every year. The rest of the time, he was away in Japan at a ninja school. She realized she needed to fill the void that her parents left. They were good people, she knew, but her mother always tried to control her from a distance. And she did a great job of that.

With Nathan's parents, she could be herself without her mother's snide comments or her father's jokes. With Dr. Drakken, she was able to have an intelligent conversation with him. With Shego, she could talk to her without the fear of being judged. She wondered why her mother was the way she was, and she wondered why her father was the way he was. "Are you all right?" the green skinned woman asked her as she put the pie in the oven.

"I'm fine," Mae replied. "Just thinking."

"About…?"

"My parents," Mae sighed and took a seat at the island in the center of the kitchen. Shego stood across from her as she started to clean the counters from their flour fight. "Do you know anything about them?"

"Probably too much," the ex-villainess admitted. "What do you want to know?"

"Why they are the way they are," Mae replied. Shego knew what she meant, though. She had listened to the distressed teen on more than one occasion about them.

"Your father was left alone a lot. He never got too attached to his parents, which is why he probably doesn't get attached to you. But who knows?" Shego said. "Your mother is a control freak, I know that for a fact. She thinks saving the world is more important than anything."

"But isn't it? I mean, it's the world," Mae questioned the older woman.

"Maybe. But her world should be _you_."

* * *

Kim stood in front of her daughter, tears in her eyes as she hesitated to let her go in the airport. As much as she resented her daughter's choices, she still loved her. It dawned on Kim at this very moment that she had never spent enough time with her. Perhaps she should have been there. But Kim had been a young mother and she didn't want to give up her life of saving the world. But now that she was older, she began to see her mistakes. And the fact that Mae wasn't upset to leave her, made Kim regret everything even more so.

And now, her baby was standing before her with her suitcase, ready to move away from home and off to another state with her fiancée, Nathan Lipsky. Why hadn't she realized her mistakes sooner? Why hadn't she accepted Drakken and Shego's child the moment Mae announced she was dating him back in high school? He had done so much for her daughter. He had taken her out of her shell and made her something anyone could be proud of. And it took Kim until now to realize there was nothing wrong with her daughter, and she just needed a mother, a friend, and a father.

To make things even more emotional for the redhead, Mae cried when she hugged Shego and Dr. Drakken- Drew- tightly. She seemed to be more connected with them, as if they were her parents and Kim was just someone she barely knew. The Lipsky's had turned to their son, and Mae turned towards her mother. "I'm sorry," Kim found herself saying. But her daughter was a stranger to her, so she didn't hug her. She was never close to her. And Kim was beating herself up for it.

"For what?"

"Everything." Kim found herself hugging Mae, and to her surprise, the blonde hugged her back. "Now," Kim said, holding her at arm's length. "You be careful. And if you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to call me."

"Of course," Mae said. "Even if I don't need anything, I'll be sure to call you." After saying goodbye for the hundredth time, Kim watched Mae and Nathan walk off towards the counter to check in their luggage. After an hour, Kim watched the plane take off and sighed. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she knew it was Shego. She could sense the woman from miles away.

"She asked me why I saved the world one day," Kim whispered. "I told her it was because the world needed to be protected. You know what she said?" Shego was silent, letting Kim cry her bitter tears of regret. "She told me my world was right in front of her, and it was crumbling to bits right before my eyes and I couldn't see it. I didn't understand what she meant."

"Do you know now?" Shego asked her quietly. Kim nodded slowly.

"She was supposed to be my world," Kim cried. "And now she's gone. Why didn't I see it before?"

"Sometimes," Shego said, "the most important things slip through your fingers before you realize they're important."

"How come you have to be right?"

"Because it annoys you," Shego smirked before she patted Kim on the back and left with Drew.


End file.
